SailGP: Riedel's technology with sea racing cars

Warren Jones, CTO de SailGP, and Thomas Riedel CEO of Riedel Communications, analyze in this video interview the international regatta in which eight of the fastest catamarans in the world compete at almost 100 km/h “flying” over the sea combining speed and skill. A technological challenge in terms of intercommunication, broadcast transmission and telemetry management.

SailGP is a nautical sports competition created by Lawrence J. Ellison y Russell Coutts tras la derrota del equipo de Ellison, el Oracle Team USA, en la Copa América de 2017, para mantener el uso de los catamaranes AC50 en competición, pero con unos barcos exactamente iguales para todos los equipos, por lo que se eliminó toda modificación en los modelos, que pasaron a llamarse F50. Actualmente, en esta regala de auténticos bólidos del mar, propiedad de la organización, participan equipos de Australia, Japón, Estados Unidos, Gran Bretaña, Nueva Zelanda, Dinamarca, Francia, Canadá, Suiza y España, a los que se irán sumando otros países como Alemania en la próxima temporada.

Desde su estreno mundial en Sidney en febrero de 2019, SailGP has opted for innovative and environmentally friendly solutions. In collaboration with technology partners such as Riedel, Oracle and Timeline TV, this ambitious project deploys in each test a remote production with extremely demanding television coverage that can be followed in a hundred territories.

In the case of Riedel, its DNA is closely linked to the most demanding sporting events such as F1 or Red Bull Sky Racing. With the birth of the SailGP, the German manufacturer once again opted for speed linked to the highest technology in data, video/audio and intercom networks, this time adding the challenge of a hostile environment such as the sea where the wind, the distances, and the salt water itself determine success.

It is precisely in these demanding tests that Riedel finds fertile ground for innovation and next-generation technology.

The radio frequency infrastructure deployed by Riedel allows SailGP from a same backbone network interconnect both the racing sailboats and the support boats, race committee, cameras, spectators, helicopter with Cineflex gyroscopic camera... The system is based on the popular fiber network MediorNet from Riedel, although in this case it is a unique radio frequency network that, being bidirectional, allows controlling the movement, tilt and zoom of the camera.

Both from the Remote Operations Center (ROC) In Wuppertal (Germany) and locally at the headquarters of each regatta, operators can access the entire system configuration in terms of video, audio, intercommunication and data signals. In this way, the team can monitor and control essential parameters of the equipment on board the racing boats, including camera control, audio settings, GPS data transmission and battery management, and help the on-site team optimize system performance.

Remote production

For the production of each regatta, more than 40 video sources. At the same time, the LiveLine FX technology allows you to obtain impressive graphics on the screen by obtaining the information from the 1,200 data points provided by hundreds of sensors placed on the ships and on the crews themselves.

The data management In SailGP, as in any other sporting competition at the highest level, it is essential to optimize the performance of the sailboats, improve technical aspects in the future, help with refereeing and, of course, provide greater spectacularity to the broadcast thanks to the automation of the production and the augmented reality that represents the entire regatta field.
The data, which Riedel manages in real time, thus allows the exact location of a vessel and can even link that information to a camera that will track the sailboat or open the crew's microphones through an automated production system.

Among the main innovations of this historic remote production are the integration of super low latency technologies and the internal design of custom equipment, such as PTZ cameras (Sony) waterproof IP controlled.

All production is carried out remotely by Timeline from the United Kingdom, so only the necessary personnel and the different capture systems travel to each regatta in one part of the world. Both the production itself and the data management for onair graphics are carried out from the Timeline headquarters (sometimes more than 16,000 kilometers away from where the regatta is held). The result is a 360 experience of fast-paced action on the water for fans.

SailGP is achieving a sports and television spectacle in which everything works like a clock in which Riedel solutions are the perfect gear.

In this way, SailGP is achieving a sports and television spectacle in which everything works like a clock in which Riedel solutions are the perfect gear.

The intercom system Riedel Bolero It also plays a key role in the SailGP tests since from the same system equipped with 40 DECT antennas (in the 1.9 GHz band) the crew on board the sailboats can talk to each other privately, and with the push of a button communicate with other boats in competition, support teams on land or at sea or even intervene live in an interview during the broadcast.

Due to the demanding conditions with strong gusts of wind and continuous water sprays, Riedel worked to adapt microphones such as the Bolero bodypacks to this environment.

Committed to sustainability

The third season of SailGP started last May in Bermuda, continuing in Chicago, Plymouth, Copenhagen and Saint-Tropez. On September 24 and 25, the competition stopped in Cádiz, continuing its journey last weekend in Dubai, making the leap to New Zealand in 2023.

SailGP is committed to reducing its carbon footprint as much as possible, which is why remote television production is decisive.

The organization of the test is committed to reducing the carbon footprint as much as possible, so remote television production is decisive in this objective. While previously it was necessary to move around twenty containers with the technical material, now a single container houses the on-site technical equipment connected through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) cloud services to Timeline's facilities in the United Kingdom.

The red Oracle FastConnect allows you to carry all the video and audio signals of the regattas from the other side of the world (sometimes more than 16,000 kilometers) to a television studio in England with a latency of less than 40 milliseconds. This speed, fundamental in the graphic treatment of the broadcast, is also key in the security and predictability of the dedicated bandwidth.

As SailGP aims to become a benchmark in sustainability, the use of these IP technologies means not only moving fewer shipping containers (barely a hundred including vessels) around the world, but also transporting fewer people to sites to run television production.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_N1t6bmgE4